Australia’s employment figures for March revealed a slight contraction of -6.6k, worse than expectation of 7.2k growth. This downturn was primarily due to drop in part-time employment by -34.5k, partially offset by rise in full-time by 27.9k.
Unemployment rate rose from 3.7% to 3.8%, below expectation of 3.9%. Participation rate fell from 66.7% to 66.6%. Monthly hours worked rose 0.9% mom.
Bjorn Jarvis, Head of Labour Statistics at ABS, noted, “The labour market remained relatively tight in March, with an employment-to-population ratio and participation rate still close to their record highs in November 2023.” He pointed out that although there has been a modest decline of 0.4 percentage points since the highs of last November, the metrics remain substantially above pre-pandemic levels.
